If you deal with bladder issues, you already know how tough it is to find a specialist. Over 100 million Americans live with things like an overactive bladder (affects 43 million U.S. adults) or urinary incontinence. But more than 60 percent of U.S. counties lack a single practicing urologist or urogynecologist.
That leaves millions of people stuck waiting for appointments or trying to piece together fragmented care. Dr. Stuart Hart, board-certified urogynecologist, and Dr. Diane K. Newman, chief clinical officer, saw this massive gap and decided to do something meaningful about it. They just launched Urology Health, a new telehealth platform designed to make getting vital care much easier.
“With an estimated 30 percent overlap between [overactive bladder or urinary incontinence], they represent a combined population of more than 100 million individuals,” Dr. Hart says. “Despite how common these conditions are, access to specialized care remains severely limited. I created Urology Health to make urology and pelvic health care more accessible to people who need it. We are initially serving women with bladder health conditions, with plans to expand our services to men in the future.”
The new platform takes a hybrid approach. It combines virtual visits with direct delivery of first and second-line treatments. Right now, the service is open to adult women in Florida and Pennsylvania, with plans to expand to men and more states in the future.
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The platform also uses an AI-backed clinical support system. It considers a patient’s health history, medical research, and guidelines to help doctors build a customized care plan. But real human healthcare professionals still make all the final calls.
“Our hybrid-care model was designed to make high-quality urology care easier to access,” Newman explains. “We begin with conservative, nonsurgical treatments and recommend medication or referral for other treatments, like surgery, only when clinically appropriate. This step-by-step approach is not always followed in routine care, and we want to help change that.”
These kinds of bladder issues cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $100 billion a year. They also disrupt everyday things like sleep, work, exercise, and travel.
By bringing telehealth and direct treatment together, Urology Health hopes to reduce unnecessary hospital visits and lower total costs.
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